Ghanaian attorney Martin Kpebu has leveled explosive accusations against ex-Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, suggesting he’s engineering arrangements to divest holdings—such as his shares in the Databank Group—under the belief he’ll never set foot back in the country.
Kpebu aired these worries following the axing of the deal linking the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) with Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML), tying it to wider suspicions of fiscal wrongdoing and undue sway over key bodies. He posited that Ofori-Atta’s prolonged stay overseas, paired with probes from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), sets the stage for a hasty unloading of valuables to outpace any reckoning. Back in February 2025, the OSP branded Ofori-Atta a fugitive for dodging summons tied to major inquiries, including the GRA-SML pact.
At the heart of Kpebu’s charges lies the notion of proactive sell-offs by the ex-official as scrutiny intensifies on various agreements. These ideas gain traction from figures indicating Databank—launched with Ofori-Atta’s involvement—pocketed roughly $9.2 million from handling Ghana’s internal and global debt sales from 2018 to 2021.
Detractors view the GRA-SML episode as just the visible edge of systemic lapses in oversight. Kpebu, alongside fellow voices, pushes beyond scrapping the arrangement to demand indictments and clawbacks of misappropriated cash.
Ofori-Atta, holed up abroad, attributes his non-return to health needs. The OSP, however, brands this an evasion tactic and doubts he’ll show without force.
These twists thrust a harsh light on how official roles bleed into personal ventures, questioning if regulatory tools can react swiftly enough to stem potential escapes.
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